johnbirch wrote:As for the level, there was little to choose between this match and Netherlands v Russia. Colombia beating Kenya would be no surprise. Beyond that? They'd give Samoa a good game perhaps but not sure about Hong Kong/Kaz, or whoever the European team might be.

I'd say both Hong Kong and Kazakhstan are at a similar level to Samoa, and Netherlands and Russia are also at a similar level. So Colombia could give any of these teams a good game (and vice versa of course!). In my women's rankings, I have:

But with Russia on an upward trend, there is literally nothing to choose between all of these teams. I'd put Kenya a little further behind (27th), so Colombia should beat them in the play-off, whenever that might happen...

Hull’s squad are now on a four-week return to a training programme, which is geared around gradual increments to avoid injuries, in the hope of resuming full practices soon.World Rugby is expected to make a statement at the end of the month about rescheduling tournaments, Hull said. “The girls are ready to go. Once they make that announcement we can hit the ground running.”

It will be not easy to complete the qualifying path.The game with less obstacles, at the moment, appears to be Samoa v Tonga: according to the official data not even one case of covid was ever registered in the two countries.

Maybe, if the european games can't be played before, they could use the Six Nations 2021 as part of the qualifiers: the best placed between Ireland, Italy and Scotland qualifies to the World Cup, and the second best placed play with (Spain) for a spot in the repechage tournament. Or, to be more equanimous, (Spain) could play firstly versus the best placed for a direct qualification and then eventually, in case of loss, versus the second best placed; but in this case just a weekend of games would be spared respect to the original program

Asia Rugby decided to postpone the restart of the activity at least to the beginning of october, so the three RWC qualifying games (between Japan, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan) will not be played before that period.Theoretically they could play the asian tournament in October and the repechage tournament in November, but of course the chance that this last tournament goes ahead in that month as programmed becomes now even more tiny